Britain's longest-running professional wrestling & MMA blog, as well as the home of Anglo-Force & The Valkyrie Chronicles

Friday, 16 July 2010

TNA Sacrifice 2010 - DVD Review

This is another of those strange occurrences, where I review a DVD release of a pay-per-view I’ve already reviewed, and this time it’s the upcoming release of TNA’s Sacrifice 2010 show.

Tag team action began the show as the Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money and Team 3D looked to become number one contenders to the TNA tag titles. It’s an entertaining opener, with all three teams pulling off some good double team moves, especially Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.

Of course, we had the inevitable mass brawl towards the end, with Sabin pinning Brother Ray after their awesome looking neck breaker/top rope body block combination. A great way to start the show.

The title action began with Orlando Jordan challenging Rob Terry for the Global title.

Well, the execution was okay, but I’ve just got to say it again - I just don’t get Orlando Jordan. His performances just don’t do it for me.

So basically you had Terry throwing Jordan around for a bit, with Jordan coming back and working over Terry’s knee, with the champion then springing up and taking Jordan out with a spine buster for the win. Jordan then attacked Terry as he made his way backstage. That’s about it really.

The pay-off to one of the most mind boggling decisions TNA have ever made was next, as Doug Williams challenged Frankie Kazarian for the X Division title.

If you recall, Williams couldn’t make the Lockdown show because most of western Europe was grounded by an ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano. So TNA, in their infinite wisdom, stripped Williams of the title, with Kazarian winning a three way to become the new champion. Then we saw the worst thing about this whole situation, because they couldn’t give Kazarian the title belt as it was still in Europe with Williams.

Anyway, back to the match. So what can I say about Williams that I haven’t said before over the past ten years? Not much really, except that this is another great example of what Williams is all about, pitting his solid ground-based style against Kazarian’s more traditional X Division style.

It was a great back and forth battle, with Williams countering Kazarian’s electric chair attempt with his chaos theory suplex, regaining the title he shouldn’t have lost in the first place.

The title action continued as Madison Rayne defended the Knockouts title against Tara, with the former champion putting her career on the line.

Considering that it was well known that Tara was leaving TNA after this match it was pretty obvious who was going to win.

So as far as the match goes, well, let me put it this way - part of this can be seen in the new Botchamania episode on YouTube. That pretty much sums this match up, with Tara missing a second moonsault and Madison getting the pin after her finishing move, whatever the hell it’s called. Oh well, move along.

The Band, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, were up next, defending the Tag Team titles against Ink Inc, Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal.

Now this was a match, the kind I’d like to forget.

Neal and Moore looked okay in only their second match as a unit, and Nash was, well, Nash, putting on his usual workmanlike performances.

But Hall was a complete embarrassment. Everything about his performance was just awful, and once again he looked like he didn’t really want to be there.

Abyss against Desmond Wolfe had one of those crazy stipulations. If Abyss won, he got Wolfe’s lady Chelsea for thirty days. If Wolfe won he got the Hall of Fame ring that Hulk Hogan gave him.

This match just didn’t do it for me. You’ve got a guy who is one of the best technical wrestlers in the world right now, on a par with the likes of Angle, Danielson and Williams among others, against a big brawling goofball.

Abyss got the pin here, doing his best Hogan impression after Wolfe clobbered him with brass knuckles, finishing Wolfe off with the black hole slam.

Then it was on to the battle of the former WWE stars as Jeff Hardy faced Mr. Anderson.

I really enjoyed this match when I first saw it, but now it seems a little different. The action was okay, nothing wrong with that, but it was missing that certain something. Maybe it’s because Hardy’s work doesn’t seem as good outside of the WWE environment.

Hardy eventually won this one after crashing down on Anderson with a swanton, earning the offer of a handshake from his rival.

The penultimate match saw Jeff Jarrett taking on Sting. Well, that was the idea.

What we had here was just one big brawl, which began when Sting attacked Jarrett backstage. It then continued around the ring as the face painted on centred his attack on Jarrett’s left shoulder, eventually pinning his bloodied opponent after a scorpion death drop. From there we had further action as Sting attacked Jarrett again while he was being carted away on a stretcher, the attack only stopping when Hulk Hogan intervened.

This had match of the year candidate written all over it, before it began that is. In the end though it was very disappointing.

It took ages to get going, as champion and challenger spent a great deal of time preening and posing.

When the action eventually started it was like some of the other matches, missing that certain something, with RVD looking like he was just going through the motions.

In the end we saw Jay Lethal stopping Flair from interfering, and RVD getting the pin after a five star frog splash. Inspiring this wasn’t.

Bonus material comes in the form of post-match interviews, a photo gallery and a music video.

In conclusion - my opinion of this year’s Sacrifice hasn’t changed. Apart from the opening tag and X Division matches the show was a let down, very disappointing considering the talent that was on offer.

Basically it’s another example of how some things have gone wrong under the Hogan/Bischoff regime. By all means buy this if you’re one of those people who has to have every TNA DVD, otherwise leave it on the shelf.

With thanks to the powers that be at TNA for supplying a copy of this release. TNA Sacrifice is available to buy from July 20th.